LUV2013
Although Common and Rainey make a well-matched duo, their chemistry is frequently squandered by a script (co-written by director Sheldon Candis and Justin Wilson) that boxes them into impossible roles in one cliched scene after another.
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Any Day Now2012
Straining for "teachable moments," the film has one noteworthy, unintentional function: to remind us that though LGBT rights are continually evolving, the laws of kitsch remain immutable.
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Barbara2012
A transfixing Cold War thriller set in the East Germany of 1980 ...
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Carol Channing: Larger Than Life2012
Dori Berinstein's desultory, fawning profile of the nonagenarian performer devotes many of its padded 88 minutes to Channing's greatest success, playing the title yenta in Hello, Dolly! on Broadway in the 1960s.
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The House I Live In2012
What's riveting and attention grabbing in Jarecki's recapitulations of failed policy are some of the talking heads he has assembled ...
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How to Survive a Plague2012
Dispensing with voiceover narration, How to Survive a Plague is instead a compilation of first-person remembrances, a time-toggling polyphony emphasizing both individual struggles against illness and collective action-the we of me.
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The Island President2012
Shenk's film is close enough to his subject to catch the leader who rails against carbon-dioxide emissions puffing on cigarettes in parking lots.
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L!fe Happens2012
A blonde-brunette buddy comedy with a charmless cast (Rachel Bilson plays the third roomie, a Christian virgin) and banter as flat as Deena's favorite no-strings imperative, "Bone and bolt."
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We Have a Pope2012
Until the potent concluding scene, the humor and shallow profundities of We Have a Pope pivot on the cuteness of geriatrics, especially when they're spiking a volleyball in slo-mo.
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Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey2011
Constance Marks's documentary on Kevin Clash, the kind, gentle man who created the Muppet beloved by every single child in the world, rushes through the intriguing points its interviewees bring up to devote more time to banalities.
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Last Days Here2011
An affectionate look at a self-destructing maniac and his supporters that bluntly reveals Liebling's total abjection without mocking him.
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One Lucky Elephant2011
Admirably, and gently, raises questions about the folly and hubris of a relationship that may only ever be one-sided.
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Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow2011
In equal parts mesmerizing and disorienting, Over Your Cities (the title comes from the biblical story of Lilith) plunges viewers into the earth, wind, and fire of Kiefer's massive-scale projects.
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Rapt2011
The growing disgust of both his family and business associates, all hazily drawn, may knock the magnate down, but it's a limp substitute for the public fury that still burns after the fall of 2008.
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We Were Here2011
A simple, powerful act of bearing witness, We Were Here is a sober reminder of the not-too-distant past, when gays were focused not on honeymoon plans but on keeping people alive.
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Night Catches Us2010
Writer-director Tanya Hamilton's striking debut is the rare recent American-independent film that goes beyond the private dramas of its protagonists, imagining them as players in broader historical moments.
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